Not quite so unique as I keep the Rule of Colum Cille too - and have done for many years.

I did not know Father, sorry that you were under the same Rule. Regardless, it is a joy to the hearts of the faithful to see a novice nun tonsured in the Rule of St. Columban. Is the Rule then the new norm in the Paruchia for maonastics, if your Fr. Prior Joshua (Anna) and subdeacon at St. George's Priory in New Mexico are under the same Rule?

To the Russians abroad it has been granted to shine in the whole world the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father in Heaven, and thus obtain salvationS John of Shanghai & San Francisco

To the Russians abroad it has been granted to shine in the whole world the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father in Heaven, and thus obtain salvationS John of Shanghai & San Francisco

Is the Rule then the new norm in the Paruchia for maonastics, if your Fr. Prior Joshua (Anna) and subdeacon at St. George's Priory in New Mexico are under the same Rule?

One understands from communications from New York that Dom James Deschene is the supervisory authority for Fr Joshua and his plans for a future New Mexico monastery; Fr James is acting in his capacity as the appointed assistant to the Metropolitan for all of North America. The Metropolitan has made a clear delineation of the territories within which Fr Michael Wood and Father James Deschene are to work. Father Michael's assignment by the Metropolitan to the geographical areas of Britain and Australia is seen as quite enough work, as indeed it is. May God bless him in fulfilling the pastoral and missionary tasks assigned to him.

We have to marvel and thank God for the unexpected surge of missionary activity in both the US and the UK.

Is the Rule then the new norm in the Paruchia for maonastics, if your Fr. Prior Joshua (Anna) and subdeacon at St. George's Priory in New Mexico are under the same Rule?

One understands from communications from New York that Dom James Deschene is the supervisory authority for Fr Joshua and his plans for a future New Mexico monastery; Fr James is acting in his capacity as the appointed assistant to the Metropolitan for all of North America. The Metropolitan has made a clear delineation of the territories within which Fr Michael Wood and Father James Deschene are to work. Father Michael's assignment by the Metropolitan to the geographical areas of Britain and Australia is seen as quite enough work, as indeed it is. May God bless him in fulfilling the pastoral and missionary tasks assigned to him.

We have to marvel and thank God for the unexpected surge of missionary activity in both the US and the UK.

Having a St. Petroc priory in the US is not necessarily inimical to Dom James Deschene O.S.B. in his role as the Metropolitan's Assistant for the North Americas for the Western-rite of ROCOR. Given the uniqueness of St. Petroc's Columban rule monastic life, quite different in character and rule to the Benedictine observances of the rest of ROCOR monastic life in the US and Canada, personally I can see nothing wrong with the New Mexico monastery if it gets off the ground being part of the Columban Paruchia of St. Petroc Monastery.

Has Father Michael even been to his US dependencies which also include some mission groups in recent years? Perhaps he might like to comment about how he sees the future of the St. Petroc endeavours in North America, and whether he believes that the Columban rule monastery sits OK under the overall authority not only him as the Abbott but directly under the overall supervision of Dom David? It is noted:

Quote

Saint Petroc Monastery was composed of two separate semi-eremitic houses, each occupied by a Hieromonk and overseen by an Abbot (Fr. Michael) and a Saint George Hermitage overseen by a Prior (Fr Joshua).

I am not sure why the past tense, because it seems clear that St. George Hermitage was created as an organic part of the Monastery of Saint Petroc, overseen by a Prior on the ground in the US and by Fr. Abbott Michael (Mansbridge-Wood).

To the Russians abroad it has been granted to shine in the whole world the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father in Heaven, and thus obtain salvationS John of Shanghai & San Francisco

Is the Rule then the new norm in the Paruchia for maonastics, if your Fr. Prior Joshua (Anna) and subdeacon at St. George's Priory in New Mexico are under the same Rule?

One understands from communications from New York that Dom James Deschene is the supervisory authority for Fr Joshua and his plans for a future New Mexico monastery; Fr James is acting in his capacity as the appointed assistant to the Metropolitan for all of North America. The Metropolitan has made a clear delineation of the territories within which Fr Michael Wood and Father James Deschene are to work. Father Michael's assignment by the Metropolitan to the geographical areas of Britain and Australia is seen as quite enough work, as indeed it is. May God bless him in fulfilling the pastoral and missionary tasks assigned to him.

We have to marvel and thank God for the unexpected surge of missionary activity in both the US and the UK.

Having a St. Petroc priory in the US is not necessarily inimical to Dom James Deschene O.S.B. in his role as the Metropolitan's Assistant for the North Americas for the Western-rite of ROCOR. Given the uniqueness of St. Petroc's Columban rule monastic life, quite different in character and rule to the Benedictine observances of the rest of ROCOR monastic life in the US and Canada, personally I can see nothing wrong with the New Mexico monastery if it gets off the ground being part of the Columban Paruchia of St. Petroc Monastery.

Any involvement of Fr Michael in North America has been expressly ruled out by the Metropolitan in mid-February. The Metropolitan's Decree of 19 November 2010 (somewhere on this Forum) delineating the respective territories of North America (Abbot James Deschene) and Britain and Australia (Hieromonk Michael Wood) has not been altered.

Is the Rule then the new norm in the Paruchia for maonastics, if your Fr. Prior Joshua (Anna) and subdeacon at St. George's Priory in New Mexico are under the same Rule?

One understands from communications from New York that Dom James Deschene is the supervisory authority for Fr Joshua and his plans for a future New Mexico monastery; Fr James is acting in his capacity as the appointed assistant to the Metropolitan for all of North America. The Metropolitan has made a clear delineation of the territories within which Fr Michael Wood and Father James Deschene are to work. Father Michael's assignment by the Metropolitan to the geographical areas of Britain and Australia is seen as quite enough work, as indeed it is. May God bless him in fulfilling the pastoral and missionary tasks assigned to him.

We have to marvel and thank God for the unexpected surge of missionary activity in both the US and the UK.

Having a St. Petroc priory in the US is not necessarily inimical to Dom James Deschene O.S.B. in his role as the Metropolitan's Assistant for the North Americas for the Western-rite of ROCOR. Given the uniqueness of St. Petroc's Columban rule monastic life, quite different in character and rule to the Benedictine observances of the rest of ROCOR monastic life in the US and Canada, personally I can see nothing wrong with the New Mexico monastery if it gets off the ground being part of the Columban Paruchia of St. Petroc Monastery.

Any involvement of Fr Michael in North America has been expressly ruled out by the Metropolitan in mid-February. The Metropolitan's Decree of 19 November 2010 (somewhere on this Forum) delineating the respective territories of North America (Abbot James Deschene) and Britain and Australia (Hieromonk Michael Wood) has not been altered.

So is it not possible then for St. George's Hermitage to be part of St. Petroc Monastery under Fr. Michael who is Abbott of St. Petroc?That seems hard, given the impetus for these developments from st. Petroc.

If that is so re the Americas, what of Continental Europe and Asia which is outside the scope of Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain and where St. Petroc Monastery have missions in the Philippines with a "Fr. Janel" ( ) and one in abeyance in Singapore as well as the Netherlands in Europe?

To the Russians abroad it has been granted to shine in the whole world the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father in Heaven, and thus obtain salvationS John of Shanghai & San Francisco

That is not correct. Bishop Jerome has stated clearly that Fr Michael is a hieromonk and not an Abbot.

Maybe Fr. Michael is using it from a western Christian or Latin way of thinking rather than in an Orthodox understanding of an ecclesiastical position bestowed by a superior i.e. a bishop? Maybe he is not aware of the problem with using it? He does seek to explain in this way at: http://orthodoxwesternrite.wordpress.com/st-petroc-monastery/

It is however true that in Latin use, an Abbott is normally a delegated honour and rank, and normally an abbey does consist of a reasonable number of monks - more than two priest-monks and one novice nun.

Given that his site is blessed by Vladyka Jerome, one would have thought that the content would also be blessed.

After all His Eminence is also First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad? While he is diocesan Archbishop for Australia & New Zealand, His Eminence is our most senior bishop and I assume the use of Archbishop is a Western-rite thing because the use of Metropolitan in the Western Church is largely disused.

To the Russians abroad it has been granted to shine in the whole world the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father in Heaven, and thus obtain salvationS John of Shanghai & San Francisco

Maybe Fr. Michael is using it from a western Christian or Latin way of thinking rather than in an Orthodox understanding of an ecclesiastical position bestowed by a superior i.e. a bishop? Maybe he is not aware of the problem with using it? He does seek to explain in this way at: http://orthodoxwesternrite.wordpress.com/st-petroc-monastery/

The trouble with the rather eccentric reasoning on that website is that we would have not just Fr Michael (Wood) but several monks of the Russian Church Abroad unexpectedly and without episcopal approval elevated to the rank of Abbot in the Russian Church Abroad - Abbot Anthony (Bondi) of New York, Abbot Joshua (Anna) of New Mexico, Abbot Aidan (Keller) of Austin Texas.

Maybe Fr. Michael is using it from a western Christian or Latin way of thinking rather than in an Orthodox understanding of an ecclesiastical position bestowed by a superior i.e. a bishop? Maybe he is not aware of the problem with using it? He does seek to explain in this way at: http://orthodoxwesternrite.wordpress.com/st-petroc-monastery/

The trouble with the rather eccentric reasoning on that website is that we would have not just Fr Michael (Wood) but several monks of the Russian Church Abroad unexpectedly and without episcopal approval elevated to the rank of Abbot in the Russian Church Abroad - Abbot Anthony (Bondi) of New York, Abbot Joshua (Anna) of New Mexico, Abbot Aidan (Keller) of Austin Texas.

Two many chiefs and not enough Indians if you ask me. Difficult to succeed as an abbott anyway when your subordinate hermitage with 2 monks is in a third foreign country thousands of miles away and your own hermitage in Australia sits empty while you are in another country on missionary work not even in a monastery proper? It is a big podvig or cross that Fr. Michael carries in giving up his cloister and monastery cell to travel thousands of miles to another country to try and start parish missions, especially as a septuagenarian. It is a blessing that he now has a new hermitage predicated for Scotland and a new Columban nun as his assistant. Growth in Britain seems to be happening through the grace of God.

To the Russians abroad it has been granted to shine in the whole world the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father in Heaven, and thus obtain salvationS John of Shanghai & San Francisco